The Rogue Muse
by Kolik
Summary: A muse upset with how Harry Potter was finished and wanting to save Dobby and Sirius brought in reinforcements. Meet Rachel, an average, unsuspecting JK Rowling fan who gets a chance to correct a couple of minor mistakes her idol made. non-compliant with canon! First attempt at fanfic, sorry for mistakes. HP/HG, RW/LB, NL/LL, OC/DM
1. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed

Rachel woke with her head pounding. Not surprising, given how late she'd gone to bed last night and she'd never been a morning person anyway, but what was more surprising was her bedroom. Or rather, the fact that it wasn't her bedroom, despite the fact that she could have sworn that's where she went to sleep last night, just after reading the scene of Dobby's death for the umpteenth time and sobbing. This room was much bigger than hers, with wide windows and several bookshelves lining the walls. The bed she was lying in was much comfier than hers too, with several pillows surrounding her like a halo. All in all, a very nice room. That didn't change the fact that she still hadn't figured out what she was doing in it.

"Feeling ok?" Came a voice to her left, slightly concerned and yet with an easily detectable undercurrent of excitement. Rachel's head snapping round, she stared at easily one of the most bizarre people she'd ever seen in her life. The girl, who looked to be late teens, was dressed in black leather and red like a punk, but with blond curly hair held back by a pink Alice-band and a face that looked like it belonged on a child featured in a Barbie-doll ad, playing princesses. The confusion was added to when you took into account the lime-green nails clutching a Nokia phone.

"Wha?" was Rachel's unintelligible and slightly garbled response, thrown off by the girl's sudden appearance in her bedroom that wasn't her bedroom, and her apparent ease with the situation.

"Cross-universe travel is very difficult to manage - controlling all the variables plus directing you past the vortar and not getting you lost in the In-Between was a nightmare. Sci-fi have it so easy, I know they complain about Daleks and Darth Vader but at least they have inter-planetary travel, your universe has to be the most mediocre in all of Knowndom, though I suppose it has to be when you consider it's the base-uni. But I did it and you're here!"

The girl (Rachel was quickly naming her Maddie in her head, the nickname for Absolutely stark-raving Mad) spoke all in one breath, eyes glinting with triumph at the last part.

"And where exactly is _here_?" Demanded Rachel, once she trusted her mouth.

"The Potter universe of course," sighed Maddie impatiently. "You did want to be here, didn't you?"

Rachel had no response that anyone could interpret as English; she was left using all of her stubborn determination not to let her mouth hang open at the Maddie's statement. Maddie took her silence for confirmation and continued.

"You're going to have to play it carefully of course, too much fore-knowledge can definitely be damaging and if you change everything the minute you arrive then your knowledge will become inaccurate and redundant anyway, but you could definitely do some good. We agree on a lot, I was very careful in my selection-"

"The Potter universe?" interrupted Rachel. "As in, Harry Potter? The Boy-Who-Lived?"

"Yes."

"The _fictional_ Harry Potter? As in, _not-real_?"

"Yes. Well, no. Well- technically, what you would define fictional, but is actually real."

"Explain." Managed Rachel, the manners her mother had hammered into her forgotten with the shock.

Maddie sighed, checked her Nokia (God that phone was old, didn't it come out in the '90s? Rachel thought) and plopped down on the bed next to Rachel.

"It's really quite complicated, and if I were to try and explain everything to you, it could take several days which is time I don't have unfortunately, but basically put: there are several million universes. All are featured in your universe as fiction. That means all the stories you read, like Harry Potter, or watch on TV, like Doctor Who, are real. They all have doorways, or stems, in your universe, which is why we call it the base-uni," Maddie explained.

"OK, then which one are you from?" asked Rachel, unable to keep the slight incredulous note out of her voice.

"Well, that just makes this complicated. See, I'm not from a universe as such, though I suppose it could be considered a universe. It may have been originally, though we've evolved since then. I'm a Muse, one of those who inspires the actions of others. There are loads of us actually, maybe not the billion you have on your Earth, but a lot. We think we descended from the 12 Muses mentioned in the Ancient Greek Mythology, though we're now the muses mentioned by the fanfiction writers. We try to make sure that no stems to other universes are lost. It's not pleasant when they are."

"What happens when a stem is lost? And how do you lose one?" Rachel asked, her curiosity overriding her disbelief at the whole idea.

"The world disintegrates, or folds in on itself. It's more commonly known as an Apocalypse. A stem is lost when there are no records of the universe in the base-uni. It's not so common now that you have the press and mass-produce books and films like you do, but in the olden times when they used to burn books they didn't agree with, it was a lot harder. You can't imagine the pain caused by the burnings of libraries. Sometimes several universes were lost at once.

But let's not talk of depressing things - we need to plan!" Maddie had grown quite downcast while she talked, but her manic excitement returned at the final thought. Rachel watched warily.

"Plan what?" She thought was a valid question.

"What you're going to do in Harry Potter of course! I know you agree with me about the final books, I did find you crying over Dobby and wishing he didn't die after all. We need to try and stop all those pointless deaths, and help Harry more. His life really sucked. I'm not technically allowed to do anything to directly influence events though, so you're going to have to do everything, but that shouldn't be impossible, and you're motivated!" Maddie's grin would have been bigger than her face if that were possible.

"And how am I going to do that?"

"Well, duh! You're going to Hogwarts." Came the reply.


	2. The cat who came to breakfast

"That's all well and good for you to say, but how? I'm a muggle," stated Rachel, with a slight air of grievance. Not that she had waited by the postbox the whole of her eleventh birthday or anything…

"Not in this world. In this world you are a muggleborn. Your father is a rich businessman who owns a lot of companies and manages them behind the scenes therefore not spending time with you so he never noticed. He assumed the nannies and babysitters who would run screaming when you got angry were simply overreacting about your precocious intelligence and not looking at events scientifically. Today is your eleventh birthday and you will receive your Hogwarts letter with a visit from Professor McGonagall to explain magic to him," explained Maddie.

"I'm eleven!" cried Rachel. "You mean I have to go through puberty all over again!? Oh god, that was bad enough the first time..."

"Consider it the price for coming into your favourite book, and consider it a bargain," shot Maddie. Rachel paused for a moment, then had to agree. If going through puberty was all she had to do to meet her favourite characters and maybe save some of them, she would consider herself very lucky indeed.

"Right, I can't stay much longer, I'm not supposed to be here and if I'm gone too long then they'll notice. They'll notice your presence soon enough, the minute you make the first change, but as a character in the book not mentioned in the stem, there's not much Rowling's muse will be able to do. Thank god. I hate that bitch. This is going to mess with her…" Maddie finished, musing with a little, evil smile what that would do to her rival. Rachel could tell there was no love lost between them.

"Wait, I have so many questions! What am I supposed to do?" Rachel was almost panicking, the idea of so much power and responsibility was terrifying.

"What do you _want_ to do?" returned Maddie, smiling again before fading out like a clichéd, wise advisor from a fantasy movie. Rachel thrust her hands forward, grabbing at thin air in despair before slumping back in bed in defeat. At least the bed was comfy. Maddie hadn't been joking about her father being rich. It made a nice change. Sighing, she got out of bed for a closer inspection of her room. Suddenly her head was hit with a sharp renewal of the pounding headache, and the force threw her back on the bed whilst the memories of what was supposedly her last 11 years on this Earth came back to her. Groaning, she lay there for a few minutes whilst the memories sorted themselves out side-by-side with her memories of the base-uni (or whatever Maddie had called it). From what she could tell, herself on this world was pretty similar to who she had been on the base-uni - above-average intelligence, ambitious and lonely. The loneliness was apparently increased here though, as her father's own ambitions meant she had barely seen him and her mother had died when she was younger. Taking a moment to mourn for the woman who she could remember but had never actually met, she wondered if the woman had been a witch. But no, Maddie had said she was a Muggleborn. Rachel paused, God help the first person to call her a Mudblood. She did not take kindly to bullies, something that had seen her ostracised when she was younger, as her methods of confronting the bullies had not been sophisticated enough to do anything except isolate her. The bullies had left her alone though, and she had no friends to miss now she was in this new world. At that moment, a voice called her down for breakfast.

Entering the kitchen, Rachel paused to take it in. Simply finding her way to the kitchen would have been a chore without the memories that were still rapidly filing themselves away. However, Rachel could tell that soon the memories would feel as natural as her ones from the other world.

The kitchen was spacious, with gleaming countertops and floor-to-ceiling windows at one end with French doors that opened onto a garden, a garden that Rachel couldn't see the end of. The description of 'rich' that Maddie gave simply wasn't doing her 'father' justice. At an island counter in the middle, a woman was quickly lighting a candle balanced precariously on a chocolate croissant.

"Happy birthday, ma cherie!" the lady (Adele, Rachel's memories informed her) cried. The slight French accent enchanting Rachel, plus the memories of Adele acting often as a surrogate mother as well as a cook, saw Rachel crossing the room and giving her a rib-crushing hug.

"Merci," she replied with a perfect accent. Adele had apparently been helping her practise her French as Rachel had never got past the GCSE in her old world.

"Alors, eat your breakfast and then we shall go shopping, oui?" Adele enthused, clapping her hands together. Rachel nodded, smiling. Tucking into her croissant, she listened as Adele bustled around the kitchen, chattering away nonsensically in Franglais. Just as Rachel finished, a knock came at the door.

Outside stood a woman Rachel had only ever seen on a screen, with stern eyes and a tight bun that immediately precluded any jumping up and down in excitement that Rachel wanted to do. Instead, she crushed her memories of the base-uni in a small corner of her mind, and drew the other memories over her like an invisibility cloak, becoming the Rachel of this world, eleven years old with no knowledge of magic.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but I have some information that I need to explain to you. May I come in?"

Sitting in the front living room with a shell-shocked Adele and a patient McGonagall, Rachel mused over everything the professor had just said. It had been a good explanation, summarising the basics of magic's existence, and the existence of an entire other world hidden in their own, as well as an invitation to Hogwarts and all that involved. It had even included a demonstration, when McGonagall summoned a stiff brandy for Adele (though tempted, Adele refused as she was working). Pausing to gather her thoughts, Adele apologised:

"I'm sorry, but although Mr Kerry authorised me to make many day to day decisions on Rachel's behalf, I feel I should defer to him." The formal approach was only highlighted by Adele's attempts to remove the French, and the accent was almost undetectable as she spoke carefully.

"Ah, I see. I do apologise, when will Mr Kerry be home?" McGonagall matched the formality.

"I can call Daddy home now?" Rachel was finding it harder and harder to resist the urge to jump up and down. Only the formality and the training in manners that she had received, both in the base-uni and by her 'Daddy' in this world kept her in her seat.

"Ma cherie, you know your father said to only disturb him at work if it was important," Adele chided, despite that she would have appreciated her boss being present right now.

"But I can do magic! And this is an offer for a school, and it's my birthday so he said he'd try and get out of most meetings anyway," Rachel pouted, knowing that this was the quickest way to break Adele's defences. The mention of her birthday was emotional blackmail she knew, but she justified it knowing that this was important. McGonagall looked on disapprovingly at a display of what she saw as another spoiled princess. As though there weren't enough of those in the wizarding world already.

"Oui, ok, call your father," Adele conceded, the relief that she wouldn't have to make any more important decisions allowing the French to creep back. Rachel jumped up and ran to the phone in the corner. A quick conversation with her father confirmed that he had already cancelled most of his meetings and would attempt to postpone the one in the morning to the afternoon at least. If he succeeded, he would call again and then be driven home. He could be back in less than an hour. Two minutes later, the phone rang again, announcing his success. The next thirty minutes were spent with Rachel interrogating McGonagall about the wizarding world, asking about everything from money to the Hogwarts House system to Diagon Alley to the Ministry of Magic. The professor was quite relieved to hear the key turn in the front door. Rachel jumped up again.

"Daddy! We're in the front sitting room," she called, trying and (almost) succeeding to remove the hyper excitement from her voice. Apparently it was easier than expected to act eleven again, especially at the confirmation of a childhood dream to go to Hogwarts. She would show her maturity later. Her father entered, and immediately she quietened down a little, opting instead to stand and hug him, kissing his cheek before introducing him to "Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." She let the introduction do the explaining.

"Witchcraft?" Her father paused at the statement, clearly evaluating the woman in front of him. He was a scientific man, an atheist, but he trusted his daughter not to call him home for a nutter so he looked to the woman (Professor McGonagall did Rachel say? He prided himself on never needing a second introduction) for further explanation.

"Yes," replied McGonagall briskly. She waved her wand and levitated the Hogwarts letter to him, recognising that he was a practical man and would want to see the paperwork and also evidence of magic's existence. She summarised briefly:

"Your daughter is a witch and as such is invited to attend Hogwarts, where she would learn how to control her gift. The equipment she would need can be bought at Diagon Alley, using the currency I have explained to your daughter."

"I thought that we could maybe add that in to the shopping we had already planned to do today," interjected Adele, who was always on board with any shopping plans. Rachel nodded enthusiastically for several seconds.

Rachel's father hummed for several seconds, quickly looking over the papers he had been, well not _handed_ exactly, but _presented_ with before making a decision.

"We'll go to this Diagon Alley and look around, see what happens. It's a provisional yes to Hogwarts, depending on what Rachel tells me you've told her and what we see in Diagon Alley. Is there anyway I can contact you with further questions?" He directed at McGonagall.

"The normal method of communication is by owl, I would recommend buying one in Diagon Alley. If you'd prefer not to buy one, there is an owl you can use in the Leaky Cauldron, for a small fee of course."

Mr Kerry raised an eyebrow at the unorthodox method, but otherwise made no comment on it. He preferred to delay judgement to when he had all the facts, not making any immediate assumptions. He thought this attitude would pay dividends in these circumstances.

"I presume the Leaky Cauldron is in Diagon Alley," he stated.

"Yes. I've already given all the relevant information to Miss Kerry and Miss Adele, though I could run through it again for you, if you'd prefer?"

Mr Kerry looked at Rachel, doing her best to hide her excitement, and the father in him made a rare move to overturn the practical businessmen. "No, I think Rachel would hate the waiting. If you've told her, I'll trust her to tell me the important bits. Shall we go now?"

"Yes please!" The seventeen year old in Rachel's head did a dance of excitement more appropriate for a five year old. They were going to Diagon Alley!

**A/N: So I've had one review so far, and as a new user of fanfiction I have no idea how to reply privately so **

JROnarusakuhphgfan** originally disagreed with you, recently read a fanfic which made me change my mind and ship HP/HG so have changed pairing :)**

**Please rate and review, I promise to read and if you disagree with anything I've done, I will explain or maybe change my mind about how it will go!**


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